What's The Secret of Healthy Ageing?

It's official - a British study conducted over the past 35 years shows that those who walk at least 2 miles per day and keep their weight at a healthy level will live longer.

Step forward my Kleeneze business - I walk at least 3 miles a day every time I either deliver or collect catalogues. Some days, I've walked more than 9 miles.

Looks like I've found the perfect way to live longer and get paid to do it.

How to Earn An Extra £50 Per Week

You know me by now - an endless curiosity and desire to learn. That doesn't naturally translate into an easy way to make money from my interests.

Yet the British press is enthusing about making an extra £2400 per year from your hobby, if you're a photography buff, and more than £3700 per year for other craft-based hobbies.

In other words, if you've got the right hobby, the right attitude, the spare time and the spare space in your house, garage or shed, you can earn between £46 and £71 per week extra.

Of course, another way to earn an extra £50 per week is to invest your time and money into improving your work-related skills, building your self confidence and finding a job that pays you another £2000 - 4000 per year.

Then there's the way I and many others in the Direct Selling industry have chosen - to invest a small amount of money - as little as £25 for your first instalment - in a business which can earn you over £50 per week in your first month of trading, with training whilst you're earning.

If you want to know more, get in touch. I'm loving what my business is helping me with - holidays, home improvements, new skills.

Fed Up With Being Paid Less?

Bad news all round - many private sector jobs are still not providing pay rises in line with inflation, women's pay is still less than for the equivalent male employee in many industries ... and now there's bad news about self-employed income - if you're a woman.

According to official statistics, between 2007 and 2012 over 50% of self-employed businesses were owned by women, yet the average income for a self-employed woman was under £10,000 per year, almost half of the average male self-employed income.

That could be because of the type of business that women choose, or it could be due to the need to manage a business around children, family, elderly parents, etc. It could also be due to the rise in zero-hour contracts as well as the increasing number of temporary jobs.

Whatever the cause, one thing is certain. The gender pay gap needs to go.

This is where a business like my Kleeneze business comes in. You can start it alongside whatever other business you're running, and everybody, male and female, is on the same earnings plan. If you're interested, ask me for more information.

Cause and Effect - The Small Business Perspective

2 out of the 3 main UK political parties have pledged to raise the income tax threshold to £12,500. That means that, if they go through with it, anybody on minimum wage under 21 won't pay tax and anybody over 21 will need to do over 37 hours per week before they do.

And that's the problem right there. If my friends and family's experiences are anything to go by, it's well nigh impossible to get a minimum wage job that guarantees more than 30 hours per week. That's not enough to survive on without benefits in many cases.

Then there's the self-employed. How does the income tax threshold affect them? It differs depending on whether you're a sole trader or a director of a very small limited company.

But what many of us in network marketing will point out is that running a business in parallel with your PAYE earnings is a good way to minimise your tax burden, as well as netting you that extra money to drive down debt or just save up for a new holiday/car/washing machine/whatever.

And if you're unemployed, then there are benefits that you can claim whilst you're getting your business up and running.

Let me know if you want more information. I'm here to help.

Want Your Kids To Leave Home?

Then help them build their own business. Because according to the latest figures, house prices in the UK are going to rise by an average of £14k per year for the next five years.

That puts a home out of the reach of every first-time buyer couple on less than a combined income of £70k per annum. Even those couples would  need a deposit of around a year's salary.

So what's the answer? Most small businesses take at least 3 years to break even, let alone make a profit. My business, on the other hand, can help you pay off debt or save for a deposit from the first sale, with many new distributors breaking even within the first 4 weeks.

Take a look at my business page for more details - you know it makes sense.

How to Retire Before You're 50

The UK press reported today that the UK government would like to increase the retirement age by 6 months per year until the minimum point where you get your state pension is 70.

That must qualify as one of the least surprising press releases for some time.

Coupled with another report that the Bank of England wants to make getting a mortgage even tougher, because it's expecting thousands of families to be unable to pay their existing mortgages once the rates start going back up, and you'd expect hard-working mortgage payers like me to be somewhat upset.

I'm not.

I'm happy to be building a business outside of my full-time job that will ensure me more than the state pension just from my customer base.

Team leaders in Kleeneze can earn my full-time salary after a few years building their business. And I'm just inside the 40% tax bracket.

Looks like a solid opportunity to retire before you're 50. Assuming you start before you're 40, of course. Nothing lasting and worthwhile ever happens overnight.

1400 New Opportunities?

Bombardier didn't win its bid for the Thameslink contract and is making 446 permanent staff redundant. Over 900 contractors will have their contracts terminated. Shedding contractors like that has been standard practice in the UK for past 20 years with the rail carriage manufacturers - I've worked for Railcare 3 times, both before and after it was bought out as a joint venture between Bombardier and Siemens, then sold off to Alstom. Contractors get brought in en masse once a contract is awarded, then renewed on a rolling weekly basis until the contracts run out.

This is not good news for Derbyshire as another 1400 skilled engineers swell the ranks of 15000 unemployed. I'm hoping that none of the people I worked with in the '90s are affected.

If you've landed on this page because of the redundancy or Derbyshire links and you're worried about your future, consider taking a look at my Kleeneze business and please get in touch. I've worked in the rail industry, I understand the challenges and you never know, we may even have mutual friends.

Do You Want to Break Free?

I want to break free, I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You're so self satisfied I don't need you
I've got to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free

I've fallen in love
I've fallen in love for the first time
And this time I know it's for real
I've fallen in love (yeah)
God knows, God knows I've fallen in love

It's strange but it's true
Hey, I can't get over the way you love me like you do
But I have to be sure
When I walk out that door
Oh how I want to be free, baby
Oh how I want to be free
Oh how I want to break free

But life still goes on
I can't get used to living without, living without
Living without you by my side
I don't want to live alone, hey
God knows, got to make it on my own

So baby can't you see
I've got to break free

I've got to break free
I want to break free yeah
I want, I want, I want, I want to break free



© Queen

It suddenly struck me, that's a pretty apt set of lyrics for somebody trying to move away from their current negative mental programming to a more positive self-image.

And, of course, it's a good opportunity to remind everybody of the Kleeneze Break Free option.

Have fun breaking free today.

Only Being Offered Minimal Part-Time Hours? Join Kleeneze!

My eldest son has got a job after being unemployed for over a year and it's left him more confused than ever.

He applied for a job at Morrisons, who are taking over a Netto's store near the town centre, immediately opposite the 24 hour Asda. He's been offered a job that totals 9 hours per week. That's right. Nine hours per week. Morrisons think he'll accept a job that pays him £4 more per week than he'd get on Job Seeker's Allowance; luckily for them, they were right.

Interestingly enough, he is being sent on the standard warehouse training induction course - 1 month at 39 hours per week. After the initial flurry of money in his bank account, he'll receive a level of pay that means neither he nor the employer are liable for tax or national insurance contributions.

To undertake his training, he needs to start work at 8 am in a town 10 miles away. Not a problem if you've got a car. A big problem if you're reliant on public transport and the buses run hourly and aren't available when you need to get to and from work. Cycling is too dangerous - cyclists are severely injured and killed every year on that road due to a lack of safe cycle routes. So, for the next month, my hour-long journey to and from work will involve yet another 20 minute detour each way. All this so he can earn a grand total of £55 per week!

He's taking the job because, as he points out, "It stops the endless humiliation of Job Seeker's Allowance." Despite the fact that he's supposed to stay on JSA until he's got at least 16 hours per week of part-time work, he's signing off at the first opportunity. His views on the tick-box mentality of the Job Centre Plus staff are not complementary; he's lost count of the number of jobs he's applied for where the only criteria appears to be "they can't prove I can't do this."

Now, my son would be an ideal Kleeneze distributor - he's hard working, supportive, genial and believes in good customer service. Unfortunately, he needs to move to another address before I can recruit him to join my team. He's not going to manage that on £55 per week.

For everybody else out there who are offered jobs so part-time, they're not worth spending the bus fare on, consider this - if you still don't want to take advantage of the Kleeneze opportunity to run your own full-time business, running a Kleeneze business from home is the ideal compliment to this sort of minimal part-time work.

Need Extra Income in Northampton? Join My Team!

I'm currently expanding my team of distributors in the Northamptonshire area. I'm looking for 5 hard working, enthusiastic people who want to earn £50-£250 per week part time, or £10,000-£50,000 per annum full time.

I'm looking for two different types of people:

Firstly, those who wish to earn money by delivering and collecting our home shopping catalogues, either on a part or full time basis. This can typically earn you between £50-£250 per week part-time, or £500+ per week full-time.

Secondly, those who want to be team leaders, building their own team of distributors. This can typically earn you between £10,000 - £50,000 per annum, again on a part or full time basis.

Interested? Fill in your contact details on my website, and I'll call you back.

Hurt by Budget Cuts? Don't Protest - Build!

On Saturday, around a quarter of a million people travelled from all over the country to protest in London about the cuts to public services needed to reduce our national debt.

Many of those, travelling from as far away as Cornwall, Edinburgh and Yorkshire, spent over a hundred pounds each on travel and food. A quick check of train and bus fares online will show just how expensive supporting a protest can be.

That money could have been spent on joining Kleeneze and taking the first steps to building a lasting business, one that would insulate them from whatever budget cuts are affecting them for years to come.

I'm not making a judgement on the necessity or speed of these cuts. Protesting does little to improve our future prospects - British governments don't have a great track record when it comes to listening to demonstrators. Given that fact, isn't it better to take advantage of a low-cost startup, such as the Kleeneze business opportunity, to finally begin to take control of your own future?

Earning Extra Income in Warwick

I'm currently expanding my team of distributors in the Warwick area. I'm looking for 5 hard working, enthusiastic people who want to earn £50-£250 per week part time, or £10,000-£50,000 per annum full time.

I'm looking for two different types of people:

Firstly, those who wish to earn money by delivering and collecting our home shopping catalogues, either on a part or full time basis. This can typically earn you between £50-£250 per week.

Secondly, those who want to be team leaders, building their own team of distributors. This can typically earn you between £10,000 - £50,000 per annum, again on a part or full time basis.

Would the thought of that much extra income persuade you to call me? Fill in your contact details on my website, and I'll call you back.

Reflect, Revise, Refocus - The 3 Rs of Kleeneze

Last night was not a good night, orders-wise. My normal per-catalogue order value is around £1; in other words, if I collect 184 catalogues in, I usually get between £180 and £200 of orders.

Last night, my per-catalogue order value was £0.10. That's right. 10p. I got a grand total of £11 of orders, despite collecting in over 100 catalogues in just over an hour.

So what happened?

As I've said before, I'm currently competing with several full-time distributors who cover my local area. The books I put out over the weekend appear to have clashed with a blanket drop from one of them. It's quite possible I will get a low volume of orders tonight as well.

By now, you won't be surprised to find that I'm not in the least bit disheartened by this.

I now have the opportunity to practice the 3 Rs of Kleeneze Retail.

Reflect

Is what I'm doing effective? Could I be doing it better, or differently? What are my options?

Yes, what I am doing is effective.The two orders I got were from customers that were new last time, so I can deduce that they were sufficiently satisfied with my service to order from me again. I have a number of options to avoid clashing with another distributor's delivery timetable, including noting these clashes and delivering the next set of catalogues when I deliver my orders to this area.

Revise

What do I need to change to improve my results? How will I implement the changes? Over what timescale?

I need to determine areas which are not currently served by a Kleeneze distributor. I already have some success here; I can widen my delivery area until I discover sufficient regular customers to satisfy my retail targets. I will target a new set of roads with my next delivery of catalogues. I can also rejig my delivery schedule so that I target a new street every week as part of my regular routine. I will monitor and track results for this activity for the next 90 days.

Refocus

Why am I doing this? What are my goals? What are my targets?

I'm a Kleeneze distributor because it gives me the opportunity to be financially secure both now and for the rest of my life. I have both short-term and long-term personal and professional goals, from new cars to becoming a Premier distributor in 5 years time. My targets include moving up the volume bonus levels through my own personal sales, growing a team of active distributors who are retailing £1000 per 4 week period and achieving 1000 regular customers.

That's all it takes. If you use the 3 Rs, you get out of the pity-me mindset and into the mastery mindset. I know which one I'm more comfortable with.

If you want a better life, let alone a better lifestyle, let me know. I'll support and coach you every step of the way.

What I Learnt from Kleeneze in 2010

It's the start of a new year, and I'm finally back to my normal levels of energy after the bug-ridden weeks of December 2010. I'm fired with enthusiasm, I have a couple of dozen leads to follow up and I have already put out 400 books since Sunday afternoon.

And of course, there's the Kleeneze conference to look forward to on Saturday 8 January, 2011.

It seems a perfect time to look back at 2010, work out what I've learnt so far in my first five months as a Kleeneze apprentice and put in place my targets for 2011.

Personal discoveries:

1.  I can go the extra mile when I push myself to; I've done that on several occasions, including last night, when I walked non-stop in the dark and cold night for three hours, despite having painful feet, to collect and deliver catalogues.
2. I really enjoy walking for hours, even dragging an overloaded catapuller trolley, regardless of the weather.
3. I'm happy and comfortable talking to strangers whilst out delivering catalogues.
4. I love meeting dogs and their owners.
5. Dogs love meeting me. I've made friends with collies, staffies, labradors, alsatians, boxers, various terriers and a completely mental saluki crossbreed. Most think my catapuller is a toy for them to play with.
6. I'm not so good at phoning leads. There always seems to be a reason to put this off. Now, this isn't just procrastination (I'm good at that, too, when I want to be), this is more like psychological resistance on a massive scale. I'm pretty sure it harks back to when my ex walked out, leaving me with £20000 of debt, maxed-out credit cards, no way of paying the mortgage and loads of unsympathetic collection agencies threatening legal action. That's no excuse from now on.
7. I find it easy to be enthusiastic about Kleeneze - this has more to do with how easy it is to make a retail income than my reasonably upbeat personality.
8. I'm getting fitter.
9. I am nowhere near as organised as I should be. That has to change in 2011.
10. I am capable of earning £50 per week extra with minimal effort, poor organisation and sporadic tracking.
11. I should be earning a heck of a lot more, and I will be in 2011.

Business Discoveries - Retail:

1. Hitting the 10% volume profit level is extremely easy once you put in sufficient effort.
2. Sufficient effort is around 200 - 300 books delivered each week regularly over a 4 to 6 week cycle. Note, I don't have the time to do catalogue presenting and many of my customers will not open the door after dark, when I deliver my catalogues. I firmly believe that the personal approach is best and am aware there is a higher per-catalogue income when the catalogue is presented.
3. Even at Christmas time, the majority of my orders were for regular Kleeneze products.
4. It's extremely easy not to notice when a customer forgets to put their address on their order.
5. It is not so easy to find the customer afterwards.
6. It takes up to 4 visits to get 95% of your catalogues back. Leaving a note stating when you will return to collect the stragglers is vital.
7. It can take a couple of visits before you can hand over their goods to the customer. It's essential to let them know in advance by phone or thank you slip when you will deliver their order.
8. It is perfectly possible to destroy a catapuller through regular use over a five month period, especially when you're delivering and collecting 400 catalogues a week.

Business Discoveries - Team Building:

1. No matter what you do, some prospects will agree with you right up to where you ask them to sign the distributor agreement. Then they'll avoid your calls as though you're a debt collector/their ex/Satan and all his little imps.
2. Some prospects lie. Some don't understand what they've seen, what they've read and what they've been told. It's up to you how you deal with it. Taking this personally is not the right way to deal with it.
3. A steady flow of leads is no use if you're too scared to call them. If you've got the collywobbles over talking to prospects, then treat this like going out in the rain to deliver catalogues - get prepared (learn or use a script until you can fly solo), get equipped (phone, pen, paper, contact details, etc.) and get on with it. In 2011, I intend to take my own advice on that one...
4. Always ask for referrals. If the person you're talking to doesn't want to join your team, see if they can suggest someone who might. If they do want to join your team, see if they can suggest someone to join with them. Always remember points 1 and 2. 
5. I should take every opportunity to ask people to join my team via my Kleeneze website.

Christmas Costing Too Much? Join My Team and Earn Now!

Interested? Send me your details via my website, and I'll send you a free DVD and some more information.

Have a great Christmas.

Catalogue Distributors and Team Leaders Wanted

Need to earn more? Need extra money to pay bills? How about an extra £50 - £250 per week, part time?

I'm looking for enthusiastic, hard-working team members who are prepared to spend between 8 and 20 hours per week building their own business. Full support and training provided. No experience necessary.

You will be delivering and collecting catalogues in your local area, processing orders and delivering those orders to your customers. You must be over 18. Team leader positions are available to suitable candidates.

Fill in your details on my Kleeneze website and I'll work with you to turn your ambitions into reality.

Kleeneze's New Distributor Websites

I've been like a child on Christmas Eve today, waiting for the email that all active Kleeneze distributors have been expecting since last week's conference announcement.

It's finally here! My own landing page website, courtesy of Kleeneze. You'll spot a Join My Team link at the top right, which will take you straight to it, or you can always bookmark www.mykleeneze.com/annaellis for future reference.

Now all I need is a decent photo of myself...

Thanks to all at Kleeneze HQ for this, it's much appreciated.